Live performance has always been the heaviest weapon in Ted
\nNugent’s arsenal. With few exceptions, the studio rarely does
\njustice to his madness. On stage, his performances are skilled and
\npowerful. Behind the manic political pariah and psycho wildman the
\npress loves to vilify, is a gifted musician and entertainer whose
\nlive shows are legendary.<\/p>\n
It’s a shame that many people only see the gun-nut in animal
\nhides, and not the former teenage guitar prodigy whose skill has
\nbeen compared by many to the likes of Hendrix and Clapton. The
\npress loves to show us his latest excess, and political venues vie
\nfor his attention. Wherever he goes, people pay attention, waiting
\nfor the next outrage or political rant. The press, the charts, and
\nthe critics might not be kind to him nowadays, but the audiences he
\npacks into every venue obviously don’t give a fuck about popular
\nopinion. For over 30 years he’s prowled the stages and lost none of
\nhis fire and bravado, and thankfully none of his wicked guitar
\nchops.<\/p>\n
I first saw Ted in 1977 in Oakland, CA. in front of a crown of
\n30,000, when Ted was the biggest concert draw in the world. For a
\nbig chunk of the ’70s no one filled more arenas than The 10 Fingers
\nof Doom. I’ve seen him perform many times after that, most recently
\nfrom the security pit of a small arena in Kansas, where the decibel
\nlevel hovered in a range somewhere between a jet engine and the
\ndetonation of Krakatoa. As a public service to our faithful
\nreaders, I highly advise you to never watch the Nuge from that
\nclose if you can help it. Despite the damage done to my sensory
\nnerves, I was exhilarated to find that Ted hadn’t lost a step. He
\nrampaged through a killer set of classics and no one went home
\ndisappointed. That energy has been captured live, once again, and
\nbetter than ever.<\/p>\n
Chronicling Ted live has been the mainstay of his career. In
\n2001 he was captured live once again on
\nFull Bluntal Nugity<\/i>, 12 tracks of Motor City madness
\nrecorded on his home turf of Detroit playing a New Years Eve show
\nfor his homies, who worship Ted as reverently as they did decades
\nago when few artists challenged Ted for record and ticket
\nsales.<\/p>\n
Backing up Ted is one of the godfathers of drumming, the
\nincredible Tommy Aldridge. Tommy’s power and style have made him a
\nlegend in classic rock circles, and Ted’s bombastic attack is the
\nperfect fit for Tommy’s brand of controlled mayhem. Marco Mendoza
\nfills out the trio on bass and backing vocals. He’s a solid player;
\nand it says a lot that he can keep up with the likes of Aldridge
\nand the Nuge. Ted wisely avoids most of his post-’70s material in
\nthis set, which even an ardent fan (like me) will admit lacks the
\nexuberant smarm and bad-boy high jinks of his glory days. Instead,
\nhe chooses mainly familiar material. The old songs are given a good
\nspit-and-polish and they sound better than ever, frankly. The live
\nvenue is where Uncle Ted forges his best weapons, and he uses them
\nwith fierce abandon to slay this sycophantic hometown crowd. A lot,
\nand I mean A LOT of artists in Ted’s position; decades past their
\nbiggest successes and treading the boards of smaller venues; just
\ngo through the motions. Ted has NEVER just gone through the
\nmotions. He treats every show like his life depends on cranking the
\ncrowd up into a frothing, screaming mob. His stage banter and
\ninteraction show a man who loves his job, loves his fans, and would
\nthrow himself on his own spear before he gave less than 110% to
\nevery performance.<\/p>\n
Uncle Ted wastes no time in blasting his fans into mega-sonic
\nbliss. The stomping instrumental “KLSTRPHK” opens the set, and then
\ngives way to “Paralyzed,” which has become one of my favorite
\ntracks of this set. Ted shows his amazing guitar chops in a
\nfrenzied shred-fest in this gem from his late ’70s heyday.
\n“Snakeskin Cowboys” from his debut album starts off a string of
\ntried-and-true arena shakers including the manic “Free For
\nAll,””Hey Baby” (Ted’s hard rocking take on Chicago blues), and the
\nobligatory “Cat Scratch Fever.”<\/p>\n
One of the treats in this set surprisingly, is Ted showing a
\nrare moment of restraint in an acoustic version of “Fred Bear.”
\nSurprising because of the introspective and gentle nature of this
\nsong about Ted’s love of the outdoors, and the respect he has for
\nthe wild places he prowls. Introspective is an unusual description
\nfor anything with Ted’s mark on it, but he displays a devout
\nreverence for the natural world. It is well known that Nugent is an
\nardent supporter of wilderness conservancy and reforestation, and
\nthat devotion to nature comes across in this track.<\/p>\n
Naturally Ted throws in a couple of love songs for the ladies,
\nthe tender “Yank Me Crank Me” and his ode to the fairer sex, “Wang
\nDang Sweet Poontang.” Then they get down to serious business with a
\nrock-solid, ten-minute version of the proto-metal “Stranglehold.”
\nThey close the show with a short-but-satisfying rendition of a
\nclassic from Ted’s Amboy Dukes days, the sprawling “Great White
\nBuffalo,” and finish off with Ted’s favorite closer, “Motor City
\nMadhouse.”<\/p>\n
The quality of the recording is far superior to any of Ted’s
\nprevious live releases. Ted, never hailed as a great singer, is in
\nvery good voice. His chops are as razor-sharp as they ever were and
\nthe energy of hosting a New Year’s Eve show on his home turf is
\nevident in his interaction with the crowd. This is easily the best
\nstuff Ted has committed to tape for two decades. Some of the
\nmaterial rehashes his glorious heyday a la
\nDouble Live Gonzo<\/i>, but the stripped down band and the lean,
\ncrispness of the recording make this well worth a place in the CD
\ncollection of any fan of the Motor City Madman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":26967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5798],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38279","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ted-nugent","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38279"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}